Teacher Targeted Bullying and Harassment by Students and Parents: the East Coast Project

In 2019, our team embarked on an exploratory study of Teacher Targeted Bullying and Harassment (TTBH) by students and their parents in Australian schools. The project found mounting evidence of student and parental TTBH; a paucity of research that explores this complex issue; as well as evidence that TTBH by students and parents has detrimental effects on a teacher’s sense of self-efficacy and wellbeing and that this outcome may contribute to an unsafe workplace (Billett, Fogelgarn, Burns 2019). However, what remained largely unexplored was the role that school climate, including school environment, location, general educational dis/advantage, and educational systems, may play in mitigating the incidence and impact of TTBH by students and parents. This report addresses this gap.